Selling to USAFE

The 48th Contracting Squadron located on RAF Lakenheath is responsible for procuring equipment and services for the air force bases at Alconbury, Molesworth, Feltwell, Croughton, Fairford, Mildenhall, Lakenheath, Felixstowe, and Keflavik, Iceland. A wide range of goods and services are procured every year, with approximately 33 million spent annually. The following information is available for businesses to identify potential opportunities from the requirements of the United States Air Force.

Registering to become a supplier

Both current and potential government vendors are required to complete the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) process in order to be awarded contracts by the US government. Businesses are required to complete a one-time registration to provide basic information relevant to procurement and financial transactions. New registrations take approximately 48 hours to process, with recertification then needing to be accomplished once a year to keep the information provided up to date.

The first step companies need to take to register in CCR, is to obtain a DUNS number, this is provided by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B). A DUNS number is a nine digit code which means of identifying business entities on a location-specific basis. The following information is required by D&B to receive your DUNS number:

• Legal name
• Tradestyle, Doing Business As (DBA), or other name by which your organisation is commonly recognised
• Physical address, city, county and post code
• Mailing address (if separate)
• Telephone number
• Contact name
• SIC Code (Line of Business)
• Number of employees at your location
• Headquarters name and address (if there is a reporting relationship to a parent corporate entity)

Foreign companies must also obtain a NATO Commercial and Governmental Entity (NCAGE) Code prior to registering in CCR. This can be done by contacting the National Codification Bureau:

Mr Scott Keys, Corporate Technical Services, UK NCB, Ministry of Defence, Kentigern House, 65 Brown Street, Glasgow G2 8EX

Tel: 0141 224 2249, Fax: 0141 224 2083, Email: ncage@ukncb.mod.uk

Once these two steps have been completed, registration in CCR can then be carried out at

Contract listings

For purchases under $25,000, a Government Wide Purchase Card (GPC) is used. Cardholders order items from a catalogue, over the internet or from local vendors with no acquisition lead-time. If your business is likely to sell good or services that would come under this mode of purchase, it is advisable to contact the 48th Contracting Squadron to raise awareness of your business and what goods and services you offer.

Requirements over $25,000 are advertised via FedBizOpps (FBO), which is the single point-of-entry where all Federal Government procurement opportunities over this value are advertised. Businesses seeking any Federal market for their products and services can search, monitor and retrieve opportunities advertised by the entire Federal contracting community.

For further information on all aspects of FedBizOpps, there is a downloadable user's guide available on the FBO website.

For further information on any of the above information contact the 48th Contracting Squadron on 01638 522360. 

If you are interested in doing business with USAFE please look at their current opportunities.